"Kazu-neechan! Onee-chan is already here!"

It was the beginning of the weekend after Shino's tenth birthday. It had already been three years since Kazuto received his first scrunchy, and he wore it in his hair along with a dress that was given to him for his ninth birthday from Shiro. Kazuto's hair had grown quite long at this point, and when it wasn't tied up, it reached the bottom of his waist.

He was often teased by Shiro and Shino that he didn't have a boy's waist, that it was thin and curved like Shino's. He wasn't allowed to go swimming without wearing at least a shirt as far as they were concerned, and when they went to the beach for Shino's birthday...they made him wear a spare swimsuit of Shino's. With a skirt hiding his boyhood, he wore a bikini top, and the time at the beach was as if normal. Not one person noticed he was a boy outside of their group. Other boys at the beach did express dissatisfaction that even though Kazuto was wearing a bikini top he didn't have any breasts, but it didn't make a difference since Shino wore the same thing and didn't have any to show at the time either. They were only children after all.

With that memory in his mind, Kazuto was nervous to see Shino in the dress. He was beginning to become very aware that although he liked girls' clothes, he was embarrassed to be seen in them unless it was his family and Shino's family. He wanted to hurry and change into boys' clothes because it would be the first time he dressed like a girl in front of his cousin Suguha.

With a big gulp, he closed his bedroom door and headed down the stairs to meet with Shino and Shiro. The three of them were taking lessons together at this point, and although Shiro was clumsy and still learning, it was fun having him along.

The issue was how he would handle Suguha and her parents reacting to him wearing girls' clothes. Kazuto's parents weren't worried about it in the slightest which made him even more worried.

"You look so pretty in the dress! I'm proud of the decision on that one for you. It was worth waiting a year for you to finally wear it."

Shiro was definitely proud of the look. Kazuto still hadn't grown masculine enough for the female clothes to look out of place on him. To add to it, his face hadn't grown masculine at all. His body wasn't growing any hair besides that on his head, and it made him wonder if he was really a girl and his boyhood was a lie somehow.

"Ugh, let's just go Shiro. I want to change back to my regular clothes after Sugu and her parents have seen it. I don't even want them to see it...!"

Kazuto was heavily distressed to be wearing the dress. It bothered him that he was so nervous wearing it outside after the swimsuit had made his state of mind on gender obvious. The swimsuit was obviously worse, and he had gotten used to wearing it. That was what bothered him. Getting used to it. Would he also get used to the dress?

Shino seemed to be impressed with his appearance when they got outside and she waited beside his mother's car.

"If I were a boy, I'd be confessing my feelings to you right now Kazuto. You're really cute in the dress. I'm surprisingly proud of Shiro's eye for fashion..."

She kept staring at him with an expression that they saw a lot of at the beach when they were both being ogled by perverts. She wore much more boyish clothes with her long shorts and baggy t-shirt. Kazuto felt a little flutter in his chest when he saw her looking so impressive. She had such clear eyes when she looked at him in female clothes. It was hard for him to keep his mind straight when he saw her like that.

"Get in the car kids, Suguha-chan is already waiting for you."

He followed Shino into the car, putting her in the middle of the back seats. Shiro sat on her other side. Kazuto was reminded that Shino recently had an appointment with the optometrist which had her wearing glasses. When he imagined her wearing glasses with her cool boyish clothes today, his heart started beating faster and his face flushed warm and prickly in embarrassment.

He looked away from her and out the window, trying to distract himself as the car travelled the streets and freeways until they reached the district that he was familiar with. The district which was more dominated with large buildings until they reached the residential district. The residential was close to a tourist landmark which was more natural than other places in the area. A place which was considered castle grounds, a massive park with a small castle in the centre which was separated from the rest of Japan, as if a country of its own within the largest city of Japan.

His studies had expanded quite a lot since his ninth birthday. He wanted to start playing video games more often as an expression of being a boy, although Shino did share that interest with him. He continued his researching and delving further into gaming when they weren't at school or taking their martial arts lessons, he was absorbed into the games, and research of further gaming. Apparently there was a company which was making progress into a type of gaming he felt he would do much better at. He was okay at some video games, but the promise of virtual reality gaming being nearby made him excited.

The car stopped when he imagined being able to play a valiant hero in a virtual reality game sometime in the near future.

"Finally here! You took so long today. Onii-chan, you better get out of the car right now!"

Suguha's voice brought Kazuto out of his imagination of virtual reality gaming, and Shino pushed him out of the car. Kazuto's mind froze as his body stood up after finding its balance being pushed out of the car. Shino followed behind him and Suguha just stared.

"Did you finally get a haircut Onii-chan?"

She looked at Shino when she asked that question, but when Shino turned her face to Suguha, the question was answered. Suguha couldn't deny that the person wearing a cute frilly light blue dress with silky long black hair was her beloved cousin she referred to as an older brother.

"I think it's about time you start calling Kazu-neechan Onee-chan, Sugu-neechan."

Shiro was being even more cheeky than usual.

"Onii-chan?"

Suguha didn't want to believe what she heard from Shiro. When Kazuto's mind finally started working properly again, he immediately argued what Shiro said.

"They made me wear this! Shiro bought it with his allowance for my birthday last year and I never even touched it. Them and Mom worked together and made me wear it! She said I should wear it for them before I outgrow it...Darn it, Sugu, I don't like dressing like this."

Shiro seemed ready for anything Kazuto might argue, because he started pulling picture after picture of Kazuto wearing female clothes since they were little out of his kendo bag.

"Kazu-neechan has been dressing like this for a long time Sugu-neechan."

Suguha started crying silently and ran away into the house to escape the pictures Shiro started trying to show her.

"Shiro you jerk! Give me those pictures! They need to be burned! You made Sugu cry!"

Kazuto was furious. After the situation with the pictures and the reveal, Kazuto finally changed to his regular clothes in the washroom of the main floor of the house. He tied his hair back and glared at his reflection. He was tempted to cut his hair. He liked the feeling of his hair being long, but if it was part of what made Suguha cry, it almost washed away the attachment he had to it being long.

When he stepped out of the washroom, Suguha was standing there with her cheeks and eyes a little red from crying.

"Onii-chan...sorry. If you like wearing girls' clothes, it's okay. It's Onii-chan's hobby right? It's fine..."

While she was saying it, he tried coming up with something that would convince her otherwise, but she was convinced he really liked wearing girls' clothes. Probably because of Shiro explaining it to her the wrong way. Maybe Shino also intended to sabotage his friendship with Suguha.

"It's...not like that Sugu. I'm a boy and I don't like being called a girl... Mom used to dress me up like a girl because my face...is girly. That caught on with Shino and Shiro and Shino would switch clothes with me. I didn't mind for a long time, but this year I realized I feel embarrassed wearing girls' clothes. I've been playing video games and other boy stuff too. Today was an exception. I didn't even want to dress in it, but Mom said it was a good chance before I outgrow this dress and Shiro spent his allowance on it for my birthday last year. I never wore it before today."

Suguha seemed to cheer up a little as she heard Kazuto explain himself.

"I would feel bad for the dress not being worn, so for the dress it's okay. No more dressing like a girl though if you really meant it when you said you aren't like that any more."

She fidgeted a little and finished saying something else which bothered her.

"It made me really worried that you might think Shino is really cool and were dating her as a girl while she looks like such a cool boy."

Kazuto was caught off guard and he was reminded of how cool Shino looked to him that morning and his face flushed and his heart pounded.

"You really do like her that way! Onii-chan you jerk! Idiot! Pervert!"

She ran away again before he could explain himself again, but there was no excuse for his reaction to his memory of Shino making his heart beat like that. He sighed in defeat and hung his head, his hair flopping over his shoulder.

"You do have a crush on Onee-chan..."

Shiro was standing on the staircase above where it all happened.

"Now, do you like her as a girl, or as a boy?"

Kazuto chased him in a goal to shut him up. It didn't take long before he caught him and put tape meant for his kendo sword handle over Shiro's mouth and pinned him to the floor.